


Dual Lullaby

by theonewithwaytoomanyfandoms



Series: Zutara Week 2020 [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Fire Nation Lore (Avatar), Southern Water Tribe, Zutara Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:40:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25567594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theonewithwaytoomanyfandoms/pseuds/theonewithwaytoomanyfandoms
Summary: In which a song becomes a legend, and the Fire Nation Royal Family becomes a study in equal partnership in all things, even in the Spirit World. Written for the Day 2: "Counterpart" Prompt for Zutara Week 2020.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Zutara Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1850815
Kudos: 41





	Dual Lullaby

**Author's Note:**

> This second prompt was so much harder to write, friends! I hope you all enjoy a more abstract take on the idea of counterparts.

There is a song in the Fire Nation that was stamped into memory over a hundred years ago, after a time of war and a dawn of peace. It tells the story of a family that came together under the oddest circumstances, in the meeting of the moon and sun itself. Side by side, the moon and sun created the seasons for all of the world to live in. It was only by having them side by side, equal to each other, that the four nations were able to live together in harmony in the first place. And so it was that this song was perfected by the proud nation that worshipped the sun and finally realized it needed the moon. 

Before the song became a cultural icon, it was a lullaby. 

* * *

More accurately, it was a lullaby that had been handed down from an uncle’s love for his nephew, combined with a mother’s love for her daughter. When Zuko of the Fire Nation became Fire Lord, he did so with the strength of his uncle and his friends beside him. When his first child was born, he remembered the songs his uncle would sing during his exile, and turned them into music to rock his daughter to sleep. His wife often liked to tease him that for a man who didn’t properly appreciate music in his childhood, he certainly was not ignorant of the power it had to put a fussy child to sleep. 

Fire Lady Katara of the Southern Water Tribe also sang her firstborn to sleep with the songs her brave mother had sang to her as a child. While Zuko’s lullabies came from his uncle’s songs of the seasons and the sun god Agni, Katara’s chants came from generations of waterbenders calling to the sacredness of the moon spirit Tui. It was in this way that they raised their children, side by side.

  
  


Katara remembers exactly when Zuko started singing to their daughter to calm her down. It was about three weeks after her birth, a harrowing experience that left both parents shaken. Since then, Zuko had become even more fiercely protective of his little family, fearing that the worst would happen if he let his guard down. It was because of this he began to wake when their daughter did, assuring Katara that she could return to sleep while he got the baby back to sleep. It was in these times that she would lay on her side, eyes open, just to watch her husband sing to their daughter.

_ “Winter, spring, summer and fall,” _ he sang as he bounced the baby back to sleep,  _ “May Agni see you warm and safe through it all.”  _

Katara loved hearing him sing, his rich voice slipping lower for the lullaby to take effect. It was a song about how important the seasons were in the world, and why his homeland paid homage to the sun. When he sang, Zuko’s eyes would often well up with unshed tears and full of love for his child. Katara could see all of the parts of him in these moments: a strong leader, a respectful husband, a father who loved his daughter so much that he was afraid of making the same mistakes his family did with him. Observing Zuko walking around while singing Agni’s season blessing song was the sweetest thing for her to see. She would often slip back into sleep with a smile while Zuko paced their bedroom, softly singing the whole time while cradling the baby close to his chest.

As the months grew on and their daughter grew older, Katara needed less and less rest. It was then she was able to take up the mantle of putting her daughter back to sleep in the middle of the night, this time singing hymns to Tui in honor of her friend Yue, a woman she wanted her daughter to know of. She recalled the deep lulls of her childhood, low songs her mother used to sing in the dead of winter during the fiercest blizzards. 

_ “Tui and La, push and pull, water flows to guide you home. The moon shines bright, on you tonight, rocking the ships to shore in the light,”  _ Katara sang out, drawing her voice’s strength from her mother’s memory. Although her child had grown a bit older, she was still content to rock her in the family’s bedroom. 

Just like Katara loved watching him, Zuko also loved watching Katara sing their baby to sleep. She would even add on to her Water Tribe song while she did so, humming elements of Zuko’s hymn to Agni. Zuko watched his little family with bright eyes every time Katara sang. He thought of the love in their corner of the palace, a place where for so long only darkness had reigned. Oftentimes when Katara sings, he reflects on how different his daughter’s upbringing will be from his and Azula’s childhood. His father had no love for either of his children, and his mother left them to save them. There had been no love in that household to stay. Now, Zuko reflects upon himself as a father and often worries if he will be as much of a failure as his own father. One glance from his wife usually puts his mind to rest. After all, the Fire Nation eventually came around to the idea of the young Fire Lord and his Water Tribe Fire Lady as counterparts in power. Zuko tried to apply this logic to his and Katara’s parenting. Two parts of one whole unit. Two leaders, two parents, two elements come together. 

* * *

It is this mindset that eventually leads Zuko and Katara to write down the words to the song they have been singing to their daughter all this time. They laugh as they realize that throughout the years, they have rolled the melodies and the words of the hymns together enough on those restless nights that they have created one entity, one new song to honor both Agni and Tui and La. What had started out as a calming lilt to put a child to sleep in their earliest days had become an emblem of Fire Nation folklore, one that honored the intertwining of the two strong nations. It was a song of sun and moon, summer and winter, red and blue, fire and water. 

* * *

It is said that the Fire Nation still sings the lullaby to its children today. Even though Fire Lord Zuko and Fire Lady Katara are gone now, their song lives on in the heart of the Caldera and beyond. It is a reminder that one of their best leaders came from a land across the sea that understood the importance of balance. It was a reminder of how they would always be connected with the Water Tribe, always worshipping the moon spirit Tui alongside Agni. When people in the Fire Nation sing it, it is said that they can still hear Zuko and Katara sing alongside in the winds the spirit world has sent out. They chant the words to their children, hoping for the blessings of the seasons, the sun, and the moon would always bring them peace. 

* * *

_ “Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, _

_ Tui and La, push and pull, water flows to guide you home, _

_ May Agni see you warm and safe through it all. _

_ The moon shines bright, on you tonight, rocking ships to shore in light.”  _

  
  



End file.
